Christopher BarrettTicketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment (LNE) are facing a new class action lawsuit, filed in the US, that accuses them of monopolising ticket sales and undertaking “anticompetitive” practices.
The action was filed in the California federal court by lawyers from Quinn Emanuel Urqhart & Sullivan on behalf of plaintiffs from California, Ohio and Florida who are seeking to represent Ticketmaster customers.
It claims that since Live Nation and Ticketmaster merged in 2010, the company has overcharged customers with “extraordinarily high” fees.
It suggests that 70% of tickets for major US concert venues are sold via Ticketmaster, and that Live Nation withholds shows from major venues if they do not agree to Ticketmaster being the primary ticketing partner.
The complaint suggests that the merging of the two companies means they are “able to keep a stranglehold on concert promotion services by paying its clients exorbitant amounts”.
The suit states, “The combined Live Nation/Ticketmaster behemoth has enormous, and unique, market power in primary ticketing and concert promotion services, and has shown it is unafraid to use that power.”
Quinn Emanuel previously filed an unsuccessful lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster in April 2020, which alleged LNE held a dominant position across concert promotion as well as the primary and secondary ticketing market. It suggested the companies “engaged in predatory and exclusionary conduct”.
LNE issued a statement suggesting the latest lawsuit would be unsuccessful: “Plaintiff’s attorneys have made prior, unsuccessful attempts to bring nearly identical class actions. We are confident in the judicial process.”